


You Don't Mess Around With Jim

by petersfeather



Series: Let's Hear It for the Boy [5]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Billy Hargrove & Eleven | Jane Hopper Friendship, Billy Hargrove Lives, F/M, Fluff, Gay Billy Hargrove, Hop adopted Billy, Hopper is a pushover, M/M, Post-Season/Series 03 Fix-It, and now he's a big fluffy mess, bc canon ain't it, his kids call him dad and he's GONE, it's just???, it's true, relearning what it means to have a good home, that's all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-05 20:33:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20279401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petersfeather/pseuds/petersfeather
Summary: Jim looks over at Billy again and just asks: “What, do you think the song is wrong?”There’s a challenge in his voice and Billy sees a matching challenge in his eyes.Oh alright, old man. Game on.(or the one where BillyknowsJim Hopper is a pushover.)





	You Don't Mess Around With Jim

**Author's Note:**

> hi! so I will admit, yes, Hop was a bit of a crazy mess Season 3, but I loved that scene where he was singing this Jim Croce song bc I LOVE this song and it was just cute. And i dunno how many of you guys know the lyrics to this song, but Jim is described as "big and dumb" and when a guy named Willie (nicknamed Slim) comes to win back some money he lost to Jim, he beats Jim up ♥ woops
> 
> ANYWAY, i was thinking about how Billy would 110% be a little brat and mess around w/ Jim bc he fuckin can and knows how to push Jim's buttons.
> 
> BTW in this fic, Billy has been living w/ Hop for a little over a year (which is why he's so confident about bein' able to push his buttons)
> 
> Fuller version of [this](https://okaybutlikeimagine.tumblr.com/post/186750275563/dont-mess-around-w-jim) post from my headcanon blog.
> 
> Enjoy this fluffy trash of Billy bein' a fluffy ball of angst that's finally learning what a good home is ~♥~♥~♥~
> 
> (title from that Jim Croce song of the same name)
> 
> EDIT: JUST REALIZED I ORIGINALLY MADE THIS G RATED BUT IN IT I TALK ABOUT BILLY WANTING TO SUCK STEVE'S DICK WOOOOOPS sorry children

It’s a calm and balmy night and the roads in Hawkins, Indiana are decently quiet. Billy likes it this way. Back before Hopper took him in, this was one of the few things that he felt made this town worth it: the quiet roads late at night.

The quiet can be suffocating. Billy’s thoughts thrive on the silence; they scream in its presence. Which is why quiet nights on quiet roads make for the perfect canvas for loud as fuck music and races with bad memories. It’s also why Billy got picked up by the local police department _twice_ in his first week in Hawkins. But that’s why Billy met Jim. So he’s not about to lament that.

Billy was usually out later than this, considering it’s only 8pm, but even so, the streets are still quiet enough to be pleasant, especially for a nice summer night like this one. He has his arm out the open window, letting the humid air wrap around it softly as it cuts through the night. When he’s feeling playful, he likes to encourage El to follow his lead in sticking his head out the window as they drive.

But tonight is calm and warm and a little too humid to do something like that, so Billy settles for the softness of the air on his arm. He lets it touch him gently. He closes his eyes and breathes. The less than favorable thoughts of a home he no longer lives in flash through his brain in a second, and they’re gone just as fast. The night is nice.

He briefly thinks of Joyce and her boys and what a weird family they’re going to make when Jim finally realizes what a fool he’s being in not asking her to marry him _right now_. She’s gentle and nurturing to her children and she gives that same stuff to Billy and El, even though they’re in no way related and she absolutely doesn’t have to. And when Billy thinks about it, he isn’t too surprised about her showering El with affection, seeing as she may gain a daughter (or will adopt her whether Jim gets off his ass to pop the question or not). Plus, everyone loves El and decides to shower her with affection pretty much the moment they meet her. But giving all that gentle nurturing to another boy? To _Billy_?

It confuses him to say the least.

Anyway.

She’s constantly inviting them over for dinner. She lets them stay over sometimes when it gets late and El gets tired. She’s inviting and strong as all hell and is hard on Jim when he needs it. She puts up with Jim, even though Billy recently found out that they grew up in this damn town together. So that means she’s known Jim for _decades_ and _still puts up with him_ and if that isn’t a miracle in itself, Billy is going to eat his shirt.

But it’s not his job to babysit lovesick adults. He might make it his job if they get _completely_ hopeless, but for right now, he’ll just appreciate the non-TV dinners and the soft, music-filled drives back and forth from the Byers home. Plus, Billy has a bet going with Jonathan about when Jim and Joyce get together and he needs to wait it out a bit longer if he’s gonna collect the reward.

Billy notices the sound of Jim’s fingers thumping against the wheel of the car as the next song begins to play.

_~Uptown got its hustlers…~_

Jim is mumbling along to the words, very clearly not sure of them, but when the chorus starts, he’s singing. Loudly. Not necessarily excited or anything, just loud.

“_They all call big Jim boss… and they say you don’t tug on Superman’s cape. Y’don’t spit into the wind. Y’don’t pull the mask off that old lone ranger and you don’t mess around with Jim_.”

_He -would- like this song._

El is giggling in the back of the car and Billy eyes her before he looks back to the smile cracking Jim’s face.

“That’s pretty cocky.” Billy says, eyeing the man next to him and being an overall brat about it. He scoffs a bit when Jim turns humorously disbelieving eyes onto him.

Jim laughs as loud as he sings.

“That’s real rich coming from you.”

Billy laughs back at that. He knows it’s true, he’s not one to deny that he’s a cocky son of a bitch, but he shakes his head all the same. He wonders how he got here, listening to old music from the 70’s with the Chief of Police and a girl-raised-lab-rat in the back seat.

Jim looks over at Billy again and just asks: “What, do you think the song is wrong?”

There’s a challenge in his voice and Billy sees a matching challenge in his eyes.

_Oh alright, old man. Game on._

Billy doesn’t know what’s running through his blood, but Billy has felt it boil up through the year he’s been living with Jim. He tried to push it down out of anxiety, but when he realized the safety of his new situation, it was a little hard to cool it off. Because getting under the skin of others is a borderline hobby for him. Will has his drawing, Jonathan has his photography, and Billy has his being an overall public menace. Some may say it’s not as “constructive”, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun. People are always telling kids to have fun while they’re young.

A shit eating grin splits Billy’s face and he looks out at his hand sticking out of the window and slicing the air. He hums to himself, alongside Jim as the song continues to play in the background.

“You know what I could use?” He asks, loud enough to make sure El can definitely hear him. “Some ice cream.”

He hears sudden and excited shuffling from the backseat and smiles even wider as he waves his hand around out the window.

“Ice cream?”

“No.” Comes Jim’s voice, firm and sharp. Billy looks in the car’s side mirror and sees El deflate in the back of the seat.

“Seriously, think about it.” Billy continues. “Ice cream on top of some Eggos?” El perks up again, her tongue licking her lips quickly in excitement. “Some of that _good_ vanilla ice cream too, with the little black specks in it?”

He looks over to Jim, who is gripping the steering wheel tighter, knuckles turning white.

“I already said no.” He grumbles.

“Y’know, we didn’t get any ice cream the last time we went shopping.” Billy can hear the smirk in his own voice. He chuckles when Jim turns down the wrong road, closer to the store.

“Or the store trip before.” El pipes up from the back. Billy points to her and gives her a thumbs up.

“Good point. Plus we have some of those cherries at home that we can put on top.”

Billy can picture them on the center shelf of their cabinet: those maraschino ones in the little jars. El had pleaded for them the last time they went shopping, because they’re sweet and sticky and she likes to put them on top of waffles and inside her glasses of water sometimes when Jim isn’t home. Billy had helped her get them, reasoning that they were practically fruit, even though Billy knew that was bullshit. They’re a semblance of fruit, sure, but as much fruit as something bathing in the most unnatural looking syrup can be. Even so, Jim had folded pretty easily.

“Ooh, cherries!”

Jim shakes his head. He’s not humming anymore.

But now El is hitting Jim’s shoulder, her little hand rapping furiously on it as she goes in for the kill: “Please, Dad?”

Billy can’t help the chuckle that bubbles up in his chest as he hears it. He joins in.

“Yeah Dad, please?”

And every time Billy’s mouth forms around that word, it feels less and less like alcohol-infused cotton on his mouth. Sometimes Billy says it without thinking, like when Jim is trying to make them dinner and Billy asks if he needs help, or when Jim’s on the couch helping El read and Billy needs to know where something is in the cabinets, or that one time he needed Jim to hold something for him as he fixed his Camaro. It always catches both of them off guard when it comes out naturally like that. But Jim never makes a big deal out of it, he just lets it float away through the air between them as he responds to whatever Billy has asked him.

But sometimes… he uses it to his advantage. And it works like a charm.

Because Billy isn’t imagining it when the breath leaves Jim’s chest quickly and his knuckles get whiter.

“Fine.” He says under his breath as they take another wrong turn away from their house and towards the store.

El cheers a bit and sits back, pleased. Billy is just as pleased, leaning back and tuning in once again to the song as it ends.

_You don’t mess around with Slim…_

And this time, Billy is the one humming along to the end of the chorus. His grin doesn’t fade.

~~*~~

Jim Hopper can grumble as much as he wants, but Vanilla Bean ice cream on top of 2 warm Eggos with Maraschino cherries on top was a marvelous idea and Billy thinks he should be rewarded. And he knows Jim is happy because he’s smiling every now and then inbetween bites.

After Billy helps wash the dishes, he looks to Jim with a smirk on his face. 

“Can’t mess around with Jim?” Billy asks.

But Jim just isn’t having it, tossing the towel he used to dry the dishes over to Billy.

“Go to bed, kid.”

“Yeah, yeah. Night, Dad.”

Billy doesn’t think as he says it, but his heart stops the second that it’s out there. He turns away as quick as he can, before he can see Jim’s face. His own face is burning and his heart is running as he walks to his room and shuts the door quickly.

~~*~~

“Hop!”

The sound of an irritated Joyce reaches Billy’s ears from his spot on the couch, sitting in between Hopper and Steve.

Joyce stopped by on her way to the store to ask them if they needed anything, and then to check their kitchen when they ultimately said no. Billy has noticed that she likes to do this. It’s completely unnecessary and most definitely just an excuse to come see Hopper, but it makes Hopper smile and provides Billy some entertainment as the two adults trip over each other, so he chuckles through it. Little does she know they just went to the store a night ago.

Steve is over because Billy really wanted to suck his dick.

_And_ the nerds are also meeting at the Wheeler’s house and Steve was already planning on coming to pick El up because Billy doesn’t want to spend more money on gas. But _after_ they drop them off, Billy and Steve are going down to the quarry so they can listen to music and Billy can suck Steve’s dick to the rhythm of a Springsteen song.

But for right now, they’re waiting for El to get ready and Joyce must have just found the 3 ice cream cartons they just recently bought.

Hopper looks over to her like a deer in headlights. There’s a laugh threatening Billy’s chest but he can’t let Joyce see it, so he turns his head to Steve and chuckles into his neck. Steve immediately starts to push Billy away while squirming and whining about being ticklish.

“Hop, can you come here?” Joyce’s voice is all business. She’s clearly not happy.

Billy is pretty sure she set a deal with Hop once they started getting serious to stop keeping so much junk food around. She knows Jim doesn’t make fresh food for them hardly ever. It’s always frozen dinners or fast food. It was probably just fine for the Chief when he was a mess living alone, but now he’s a mess living with two minors, so… frozen dinners every night don’t necessarily cut it. When Billy started living here, he quickly realized he’d have to be the one to make something for the 3 of them that _wasn’t_ freezer burned peas on a tray, if not for him and Hop, then at least for El. No matter how content she seems, Billy still thinks she deserves more than only TV dinners and freezer waffles.

So since Joyce can’t be here every night (except she _could_ if they’d get _married_), she cut some deal with Jim to limit the junk food in the house so she would know they’re not just living off sugar. They can’t die of some weird sugar overdose if there’s no sugar in the house.

Except...

“Why are there 3 cartons of ice cream in your freezer?” Joyce hisses at Jim. Billy can just hear it from his spot pressed against Steve. He fights hard not to snort, so he bites Steve’s shoulder instead.

“Hey!” Steve yelps, wriggling and trying to brush Billy off.

Billy shifts his eyes over to Hopper when he doesn’t hear the man say anything and notices the man flailing, mouth gaping like a fish as he struggles to bite out some words that might explain himself. It’s then that El walks into the room, a skip in her step and a bright smile on her face, showing she’s ready to go.

Billy gets up along with Steve to meet her at the door when he hears Jim reason with Joyce on a loud whisper.

“They called me _dad_.” He hisses.

The two kids glance at the adults, who are now looking back at them with wide eyes of shock.

Billy looks to El, sharing a glance of knowing mischief with her, before they give sweet, twin smiles to the adults in response.

A flustered blush begins to color both of the adults’ faces.

Billy gives El a victorious high five.

“Ready to go, kiddo?” Steve asks from behind Billy.

El nods, and waves to Hopper.

“Catch ya later, dad.”

As soon as the words are out in the air, Billy is frozen. Because those words didn’t come from El, who is currently opening the door and skipping out to Steve’s car.

“Hey, babe,” Steve starts, arm out to hold the door open for Billy. “When did you start calling Hop ‘dad’?”

Billy’s going to have a heart attack. He looks over to Jim, who looks like his face is seizing from trying so hard to force down his smile.

_Goddamnit._ Billy’s chest is too warm.

“Just get in the car, Harrington.” Billy mumbles under his breath, pushing his stupid boyfriend out the door and letting the air cool down his burning face.

**Author's Note:**

> that's it! fluffy nonsense ♥ i just?? LOVE the idea of Billy bein' a brat w/ Hop but bc he loves him and has fun getting under people's skin. I also love Billy being close enough to Hop to know he can do this w/o having to worry about his safety. Like.... Billy having the ability to be his irritating self to his father figure and know he won't get unnecessarily and horribly punished for it???? that he'll just get an exasperated sigh and a little smile???? LOVE THAT FOR HIM. that's what our boy deserves
> 
> also just wanna say i wrote this w/ No recollection of what Jim's cabin looks like and i didn't look it up bc i'm a idiot (and now that i'm writing something where i actually DID look it up i'm realizing i was 110% wrong) so Sorry bout that. if it's like, super bothersome lemme know and i'll try to change it
> 
> anyway, if you wanna yell at/with me about Billy and Steve or Billy being adopted or anything else, I'm on tumblr [@pointeful](https://pointeful.tumblr.com/) (my main blog) and [@okaybutlikeimagine](https://okaybutlikeimagine.tumblr.com/) (my Harringrove headcanon side blog) and i'm alwaysalwaysalways down to talk!!
> 
> thanks so much for reading and i adore your soul ♥


End file.
